First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt closes C$3.77M placement

First Atlantic Nickel & Cobalt Corp. CVEFAN OTCMKTSFANCF said Monday it closed a C$3.77 million non-brokered flow-through placement without warrants. The release puts gross proceeds from its two September financings at about C$9.925 million, adding 4,903,667 common shares in the latest sale.

Shares fell to C$0.72 at Monday's 4 p.m. EDT close on the TSX Venture Exchange, putting the flow-through and charity share prices at 4.2 and 9.0 per cent premiums, respectively, according to Google Finance's CVEFAN quote.

First Atlantic issued 2,333,667 flow-through shares at C$0.75 apiece, according to its Sept. 28 financing notice. It also issued 2,570,000 charity flow-through shares at C$0.785. Gross proceeds came to C$3,767,700.25. Both classes qualify as flow-through shares under Canada's Income Tax Act, the company said.

The new money will fund follow-up and expansion drilling at Alloy Max North and South, plus definition drilling and metallurgical test work at those zones and RPM. First Atlantic also plans access-road upgrades along its Pipestone XL trend in central Newfoundland, provided the costs qualify for flow-through treatment.

“In connection with the Offering, a strategic investor exercised its participation right under an existing Investor Rights Agreement,” First Atlantic said in its Sept. 28 release.

The release did not name the investor or disclose its subscription amount. First Atlantic said the participation was limited so the investor's beneficial ownership would not exceed 9.99 per cent after closing, below the 10 per cent early-warning reporting threshold.

The earlier Sept. 18 placement raised C$6,157,500 through 8,210,000 flow-through shares priced at C$0.75, also without warrants. Together, the two placements issued 13,113,667 shares in September. Unlike the earlier sale, Monday's closing included a higher-priced charity flow-through tranche.

As a benchmark, the combined new shares equal about 8.6 per cent of the 152.91 million shares outstanding displayed on Google Finance's CVEFAN page at 4 p.m. EDT on Sept. 28. The 8.6 per cent comparison uses the quote page's displayed share count, not a company-reported post-placement total.

First Atlantic's wholly owned Pipestone XL property spans the Pipestone Ophiolite Complex in central Newfoundland, where RPM is its most advanced drilled zone. The company describes Alloy Max as a second discovery extending about 7.7 kilometres north of RPM.

Alloy Max spans roughly four kilometres of strike and up to 1.5 kilometres in width, according to the Sept. 28 release. The company said holes XL-26-15 and XL-26-16 both ended in visible awaruite mineralization.

Road upgrades are intended to open targets on the 30-kilometre trend previously reached only by helicopter and support year-round drilling toward the historic Atlantic Lake zone.

The next regular TSX Venture trading session for First Atlantic is Tuesday, Sept. 29.